#Michael D. Coe

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #11 – The Maya (10th Edition) by Michael D. Coe and Stephen Houston

My second proper history book of the year, and significantly better than the first! This existed on the happy intersection of ‘the r/AskHistorian’s big list of recommenced works on Goodreads’ and ‘stuff my public library inexplicably has a copy of’. It’s dense and more than a bit dry reading, enough that I read it over the course of a week as a side-dish to more digestible fiction. Still, fascinating read, and a book that left more far better informed about the subject than when I started it.

The book is more or less what it says on the tin – a survey of the history of the Maya (or at least the current state of what’s known about it). The book opens with an explanation of the Maya language family, the relevant geography, the characteristics of the high- and lowlands, and the division into northern, central and southern area the field seems to use generally. The better part of it is then arranged chronologically, beginning with the Archaic Period, through the Pre-Classic and Classic, then then Collapse and the Post-Classic. The Spanish Conquest and history since gets a very abbreviated epilogue, ending with a few micro-anthropologies of different contemporary villages and then a five-page travellers’ guide to the most important sites and how to access them.

It’s all, as I said, quite dense – the sort of book where every paragraph adds at least one new important fact and very little time is spent on repetition or review. Combined with the usually very dry, expository tone, it feels much more like a textbook to be read with a lecturer or group to break down and dig into each section than something that was really written to be read alone and for pleasure. Which you know, makes sense, given that this is the tenth edition of a book originally written several decades before I was born.

Now, I say this is a history book, but that’s honestly a bit of a kludge – better to say it’s an archaeology book or, failing that, about anthropology and historiography. There is very little narativizing, and it is very much told from the point of view of the present. That is, the sections are organized chronologically, but within them the unit of analysis is the archaeological site, with every supposition explained as emerging from the analysis of some ruin or artifact or fragment of text. Far more time is spent on the architecture and layout of Mayan cities than the people who actually lived within them, simply because the author’s have so much more to say about them.

It’s only really in the chapters on the Classic (and, to a much lesser extent, post-classic) periods that the book goes from theorizing about building and pottery styles to speaking more confidently about royal courts and high politics and dynastic grandeur, and above all the attempts to give specific particular people a sense of personality and personal biographies that you generally expect out of a pop history book. Which does make sense, given that those are the only periods where we really have enough textual evidence to confidently name and ascribe significance to any particular people – overwhelmingly dynasts and war-leaders, because of course those are the (almost invariably) men who constructed stelae and covered the walls of temples with testaments of their own greatness.

This means that you do get more of a look into nuts and bolts of knowledge production that you do in most histories – a passage about the development of chocolate drinks as elite consumption is framed with the discovery of cocoa residue on preclassic ceramic vessels, one about human sacrifice by the discovery of skeletal remains in cenotes near major architectural sites, that sort of thing. Similarly, just about every single discovery or theory is credited to one or a few specific academics who initially made it. Which will be either incredibly interesting or the dullest thing in the world, depending on one’s tastes.

The text is mostly incredibly dry and expository in tone, which makes the points where a real sense of personality and subjective opinion leaks through interesting. And endearing, at least to me, but I just find there to be something instantly likeable about the sort of academic myopia which considers human sacrifice and mass famine from the point of view of the universe but is roused to passionate rage by suburban sprawl building over unexamined archaeological sites.

I knew little enough about the specifics of Maya civilization going into this that just relaying everything that struck me reading this would turn this review into a novella. But the way that lowland urbanization and agriculture were based around, not rivers like just about every other culture I’ve read on, but cenotes (and artificially constructed simulacra thereof) in the limestone to capture enough rainwater to last through the dry season was just fascinating. The fact that, the region’s reputation for inexhaustible lushness notwithstanding, the soil the Maya relied upon was very thin and in most cases totally degraded after just a few years of agriculture as well. (Speaking of, the theorizing about how diet changed over the ages and how this related to population movements and density was just fascinating).

The book really wasn’t that interested in the specifics of mythology or divine pantheons beyond how they showed up on engravings and ornamentation – there’s no bestiary of gods or anything – but there’s enough of that ornamentation for it to be a recurring topic anyway. I admit I still find the fact that there’s this great primordial pre-classic god-monster which in the modern era is just called ‘Principle Bird Deity’ deeply amusing.

The book is deeply interested in the Maya calendar and time-keeping. Along with the monumental architecture it’s pretty clearly the thing that the authors find most impressive and awe-inspiring about Classical Mayan culture. There’s enough time dedicated to explaining it that I even pretty much understood how the different counts and levels of timekeeping interacted by the end of the book.

One beat the book kept coming back to (which I admit suits my biases quite well) is that there’s just no sense in the Maya were ever isolated or pristine. Cultural influence coming down from the Valley of Mexico waxed and waned, but on some level it was constant – Mesoamerica was a coherent cultural unit, and the similarities in philosophy and culture (not to mention material goods) between cultures within it are too blatant to ignore. The book theorizes that the population levels reached in the Yucatan before the Spanish Conquest really couldn’t have been supported by local maize agriculture, and instead cities were probably sustained by harvesting and exporting from the salt flats (among the best in the Americas) they controlled access to.

Even beyond trade, there’s several points where ruling dynasties were toppled or installed by armies ranging down from Mexico. The Olmecs and Toltecs make repeated appearances. Even the conquistadors conquest of the Highlands was really only possible because the few hundred Spaniards who got all the credit were marching alongside several thousand indigenous allies.

Speaking of – it’s really only an aside to an epilogue, but given I mostly know the Anglo-American history here, it did kind of strike me how...traditionally imperialist the Spanish were, compared to the more-or-less explicitly genocidal rhetoric I’m used to. If you were an indigenous potentate or ruler enthusiastically selling out to the Spanish Crown was significantly more likely to actually work out for you than trusting a treaty with the US of A, anyway (well, for a while. Smallpox comes for everyone),

Then again, the book does mention that the newly independent Mexican and Central American states in the 19th century were actually significantly worse for the Maya than the Bourbons had been (with things reaching their nadir with the genocidal violence of the 1980s in Guatemala), so maybe that’s it.

Anyway, the book is illustrated, and absolutely chock full of truly beautiful photography and prints on just about every other page. Even if you never actually read it, it would be a great coffee table book.

#book review #history #The Maya #Michael D. Coe #stephen houston

[tombraiderhorizons]

Do you have a passion for Maya archaeology and fancy learning how to read Maya glyphs? While there are a number of books you can buy – such as Michael D. Coe and Mark Van Stone’s Reading the Maya Glyphs – you might also want to check out these 5 useful and completely free online resources, especially if you’re on a tight budget.

Click to read “5 Fantastic Free Resources for Learning Maya Glyphs“

#archaeology #maya #maya archaeology #maya glyphs #learn maya #mesoamerica #namor

[ivanseledkin]

Yuri Knorozov was a Soviet linguist who deciphered the Mayan script in 1953. He had a habit of listing his Siamese cat Asya as a co-author to many of his works; however, his editors would always remove her. Knorozov would also use this photo with Asya as his official author photo and would get upset whenever his editors would crop her out. Deciphering the Mayan script was extremely challenging because there was no Rosetta Stone to provide translations into other languages. The only clues that remained were from Mayan stelae (stone monuments) that were scattered throughout several different ruins. Knorozov worked in isolation in the Soviet Union and was able to make major advancements without ever stepping foot in Central America. His breakthrough was rejecting the notion that the Maya glyphs were based on an alphabet but rather a syllabary (a set of written characters representing syllables). When Knorozov published his work, he was attacked and dismissed by several prominent academics, most notably, J. Eric S. Thompson, a British scholar who believed that the Mayan script was anti-phonetic and based on ideographic principles. It also did not help that Knorozov published his research during the height of the Cold War when Western scholars were quick to dismiss the works of Soviet scholars as being tainted by Marxist ideology. It took decades for Knorozov to finally receive the recognition he deserved. One of Knorozov's earliest supporters was an American Anthropology professor at Yale by the name of Michael D. Coe who would later go on to write, "Yuri Knorozov, a man who was far removed from the Western scientific establishment and who, prior to the late 1980s, never saw a Mayan ruin nor touched a real Mayan inscription, had nevertheless, against all odds, made possible the modern decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing."

[connors-chocolate-history-blog]

WORKS CITED:

Chocolate in the Underworld Space of Death: Cacao Seeds from an Early Classic Mortuary Cave (Keith M. Prufer and William Jeffrey Hurst) Chocolate: Cultivation and Culture in pre-Hispanic Mexico Author(s): Margarita de Orellana, Richard Moszka, Timothy Adès, Valentine Tibère, J.M. Hoppan, Philippe Nondedeo, Nezahualcóyotl, Nikita Harwich, Nisao Ogata, Quentin Pope, Fray Toribio de Benavente, Motolinía, Guadalupe M. Santamaría and Daniel Schechter Source: Artes de México, No. 103, CHOCOLATE: CULTIVO Y CULTURA DEL MÉXICO ANTIGUO (SEPTIEMBRE 2011), pp. 65-80 The Power of Chocolate Author(s): Blake Edgar Source: Archaeology, Vol. 63, No. 6 (November/December 2010), pp. 20-25 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Tasting Empire: Chocolate and the European Internalization of Mesoamerican Aesthetics by MARCY NORTON CHOCOLATE II: Mysticism and Cultural Blends Author(s): Margarita de Orellana, Quentin Pope, Sonia Corcuera Mancera, José Luis Trueba Lara, Jana Schroeder, Laura Esquivel, Jill Derais, Mario Humberto Ruz, Clara Marín, Miguel León-Portilla, Michelle Suderman, Marta Turok, Mario M. Aliphat Fernández, Laura Caso Barrera, Sophie D. Coe, Michael D. Coe and Pedro Pitarch Source: Artes de México, No. 105, CHOCOLATE II: Mística y Mestizaje (marzo 2012), pp. 73- 96 The Introduction of Chocolate into England: Retailers, Researchers, and Consumers, 1640- 1730 Author(s): Kate Loveman Source: Journal of Social History, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Fall 2013), pp. 27-46 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43306044 Encomienda, African Slavery, and Agriculture in Seventeenth-Century Caracas Author(s): Robert J. Ferry Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Nov., 1981), pp. 609-635 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2514606 Accessed: 12-07-2019 16:34 UTC The Cacao Economy of the Eighteenth-Century Province of Caracas and the Spanish Cacao Market Author(s): Eugenio Pinero Source: The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 68, No. 1 (Feb., 1988), pp. 75-100 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2516221 Accessed: 12-07-2019 17:03 UTC Establishing Cacao Plantation Culture in the Western World - Timothy Walker The Ghirardelli Story Author(s): Sidney Lawrence Source: California History, Vol. 81, No. 2 (2002), pp. 90-115 Published by: University of California Press in association with the California Historical Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25177676 The Evolution of Chocolate Manufacturing Rodney Snyder, Bradley Foliart Olsen, and Laura Pallas Brindle The Emperors of Chocolate - Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars by Joel Glenn Brenner (Random House, 1998) Bitter Chocolate by Carol Off (The New Press, 2006) "Cocoa's child labrorers", Whoriskey, Peter; Siegel, Rachel, The Washington Post, June 10 2019 The Harkin-Engel Protocol (Chocolate Manufacturers' Association, 2001) "Role of Trade Cards in Marketing Chocolate during the Late 19th Century", Virginia Westbrook "Chocolate at the World's Fairs, 1851-1964", Nicholas Westbrook Edible Ideologies by Kathleen LeBesco (SUNY 2008) Cosmopolitan cocoa farmers: refashioning Africa in Divine Chocolate advertisements Author(s): Kristy Leissle Source: Journal of African Cultural Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2 (December 2012), pp. 121-139 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42005280 Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa by Orla Ryan (Zed Books, 2011) Cocoa by Kristy Leissle (Polity, 2018) How Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms, vowed to make its chocolate green. And failed. Mufson, Steven . The Washington Post (Online) , Washington, D.C.: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post. Oct 29, 2019.

[comerrezaryamar]

Feliz DÍA MUNDIAL DEL CHOCOLATE. 🍫 “Cuando no encuentras las palabras, el chocolate puede decir mucho.” Joan Bauer “La vida es como una caja de bombones, nunca sabes lo que te va a tocar.” Forrest Gump Lectura recomendada: La Verdadera Historia del Chocolate de Sophie D. Coe y Michael D. Coe. “Este relato acerca de uno de los alimentos predilectos del mundo se basa en la botánica, la arqueología, la socioeconomía y el arte culinario para presentar por primera vez una historia completa y precisa del chocolate. La narración comienza hace unos tres mil años en las selvas de México y de América Central con el árbol Theobroma cacao y los complejos procesos necesarios para transformar sus amargas semillas en lo que hoy conocemos como chocolate.” @fcecolombia https://www.instagram.com/p/CickjgzODAv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[solnishka-yearns-to-language]

Feb 2022 Productivity Challenge

The rules & prompts for this challenge can be found here.

Day Two: what are you reading right now?

Interesting question! I usually add what I'm reading to these posts anyway, so instead of being redundant I think I'll show off the textbooks for each of my classes.

African-American Poetry

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Magical Negro by Morgan Parker

The Vintage Book of African-American Poetry, edited by Michael S. Harper & Anthony Walton

Mutiny by Phillip B. Williams

Mesoamerican Archaeology

Mexico: from the Olmecs to the Aztecs (7th edition) by M. Coe & R. Koontz

The Maya (9th edition) by M. Coe & S. Houston

Aegean Archaeology

Aegean Art & Archaeology by D. Preziosi & L. Hitchcock

Islamic Art & Architecture

Islamic Art & Architecture by Robert Hillenbrand

I managed to only pay 90-ish USD for these books and I am so happy about that.

🎧 Listening to: "Da Pacem Dominae" by Felix Ferra

📚 Reading (for pleasure): The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

Daily To-Do List:

pay for therapy sessions

do laundry

close reading & analysis of a poem by Phillis Wheatley

continue organizing a D&D night for extra credit for Islamic Art

Novella Progress:

I'm writing a queer sword and sorcery adventure! My goal is to complete 20,000 words of the first draft by June 30th, 2022.

✍️ current word count: 2,040

#february productivity challenge #studyblr #productivity challenge

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Fruits, Nuts, & Flakes

No, not the denizens of California. Though a lot of fruits and nuts have been grown there since the 1800s. I’m talking about local and not so local cuisine. What’s available in the supermarkets today is vastly different from what was available two hundred

or even fifty years ago. A little-known but constant thread through history are the quiet efforts of oddball explorers, wanderers, and farmers on the quest to find - or breed - new things to eat. The Perfect Fruit by Chip Brantley goes into the history of the pluot, and plum and fruit exploration and breeding centuries before it was ever imagined. You might also look at books like The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe, Death in the Garden: Poisonous Plants and Their Use Throughout History by Michael Brown and The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan's Cherry Blossoms by Naoko Abe. In 1800s England, for example, peaches were rare and expensive, and pumelos and kiwis unheard-of.

And yet a lot of fantasy and SF stories ignore the fact that 1) edibles are not the same everywhere and 2) lifetimes of adventures could be had chasing after one more odd plant no one else knew much about.

Which is a shame. It may not be dragon-hunting directly, but there’s no reason dragons (or aliens) can’t be involved. Just look at the Apples of the Hesperides that Hercules had to steal, the gold, silver, and jeweled forests in the Twelve Dancing Princesses, or the legendary Peaches of Immortality. Heck, check out the herb of immortality in the Epic of Gilgamesh for a plant only achieved by great hazards.

(They don’t have to be god-level hazards. In the first episode of the historical drama The Three Musketeers (Korean: 삼총사; RR: Samchongsa), our young hero Park Dal-yang ends up facing “road closed due to tiger”. When’s the last time you saw that as a story hazard?)

You could make whole stories out of hunting, breeding, and stealing plants from far-away places, hidden gardens, and mad wizards’ greenhouses. The poison maiden of Rappaccini’s Daughter could be one foe; the police and army of an entire empire devoted to hiding one particular secret, another.

Even if you don’t want to write a story about plant-hunting, it can make an excellent subplot, character background, or reason for adventurers to go on a rescue mission. We need the Archmage to stop the onslaught of the terrible undead typhoon! ...But he’s up in the mountains looking for a lily that only blooms once every hundred years under full starlight, and you’re going to have to go get him....

Poke some plant history! It might get your story growing in a different direction.

#creative writing #worldbuilding #based on real life #fruits #nuts #flakes

[sleepsonitsaxis-blog]

My photos

Mayan waterlily vessel, 750-800 CE, Art Institute of Chicago,

Creating Our Own Alternate Realities?

 I recently finished reading “Breaking the Maya Code”, by Michael D. Coe, which I very much enjoyed. Throughout the book, I had visions of intrepid explorers, hacking back the jungle to reveal glorious Mayan monuments. Don’t laugh, my preconceptions of the region are probably based on vintage photographs and colourful documentaries of lush forests and colossal ruins that I saw years ago.

While much of the book details the discovery and publishing of the Mayan glyphs, and then determining the role that they played in relation to the Mayan languages, as ideograms, logograms, or a syllabary, I was struck by the many academic disputes that this process generated. These are to be expected when encountering, and trying to analyze, unfamiliar phenomena, but they prompted me to think about these controversies generally, and their repercussions in science, the humanities, and in the world outside academia.

In the story of the Mayan glyphs, for example, a very influential archaeologist, Eric Thompson, actively resisted attempts by others to decipher the glyphs using linguistic methods, and he bitterly attacked his adversaries. As an eminent professor, he was able to effectively stifle research in this field, at least in the west. With our 20/20 hindsight, the reader knows that many of Thompson’s own theories were incorrect, and we cheer on the efforts of the underdogs. This made me think of more contemporary, but less dramatic, instances of academic disputes.

Sometimes, there can be technological advances that lead to new methodologies being used by scientists in their research. In one case, a professor that I knew, used a relatively new technique to estimate the age of the samples in a study. When the paper was completed, and sent by the selected journal for peer review, its publication was blocked by an older scientist, who dominated the field in that country. While this was a frustrating experience, the paper was simply published in another journal, based in Europe, where perhaps they were more up to date with technology.

These two cases show the resistance that there can be to new ideas, especially amongst the “old guard”, who have spent their lives, and built their reputations, holding certain preconceived ideas or biases. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that a novel, unfamiliar, approach must have strong reasoning and data behind it in order to contend with older theories.

In my book, “Resurrection: Recalled to Life”, I mention Alfred Wegener, and the difficulties he faced with his theory of continental drift. Unhappily, it took several decades after his death before his ideas were accepted, but, at least in my view, other factors came in to play as well. I certainly agree that much of the negativity that he faced was due to the long-established beliefs of influential geologists, but in his case, I think that perhaps there was still just not enough evidence. After all, Wegener’s theories were not new, several scientists in the 1800’s had also suggested that the continents could move. It was not until the spreading mid-oceanic ridges were detected, and research could show the changing orientation in magnetic polarity of the rocks laid down in the ocean beds, that geologists were faced with overwhelming evidence. As those scientists, the ones who had built their reputations on an earth with fixed continents, retired, younger researchers could embrace the new ideas.

There does sometimes seem to be considerable bias against new theories. Researchers may face a lot of resistance when presenting their ideas, especially if they counter long-held beliefs. However, this sort of prejudice is not unique to the world of academia, it exists everywhere.

We can see bias clearly displayed in academic disputes, but what about everyday life? Thomas Gilovich, in his book, “How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life”, writes that we are subject to “the tendency for our expectations, preconceptions, and prior beliefs to influence our interpretation of new information”. Unfortunately, we often fail to realize this. In “The Bias Blindspot: Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others” (Pronin, Lin, Ross, 2002), a group of Stanford researchers did some studies that showed that while people are able to recognize prejudices and preconceptions in others, they often fail to see them in themselves. In addition, even when the subjects were aware of how they could be influenced by their biases, they continued to believe that they were unaffected.

Gilovich, a professor of Psychology at Cornell, points out that sometimes humans will go to a great deal of cognitive effort to find arguments, right or wrong, that support their point of view when they are faced with information that contradicts long-held beliefs. This last idea is well supported in the case of Eric Thompson, the archaeologist I mentioned above. Apparently, he went to great lengths to, item by item, counter the findings of opposing researchers, rejecting all the evidence laid out carefully in the publications. Gilovich writes that, like Thompson, ordinary people, also, will “resist the challenge of information that is inconsistent with their beliefs not by ignoring it, but by subjecting it to intense scrutiny.” This scrutiny, however, does not change their beliefs, even when they are later proved incorrect. Take, for example, that 9 game winning streak that delights baseball fans and disgusts their opponents (Samuel McNerny, 2011). The fans and sports commentators can come up with multitudes of different reasons to explain why the team seems to be performing better than expected. Fans of their competitors, however, often closely analyze the data, too, however, their own explanations are often quite different, ranging from numerous questionable calls made by umpires during this streak (the league is against them), or the possibility that somehow their team’s signs were stolen (cheating). It does not occur to either side that, statistically, a 9 game winning streak in a long season is an outcome that can occur randomly, given the nature of the game and the players.

Maybe the answer to correcting our biases is to gather more information about a subject. You would think that if we did some fact checking we might correct this tendency. Unfortunately, today, there are so many sources of “facts” supporting almost any point of view, found in magazines, social media, and news networks, that we often end up merely bolstering our prejudices. As a result, everyone assumes that our own beliefs concerning religion, politics, economic theory, or our sports teams, are correct, and our opponents are wrong.

Does this mean that we are all individually stuck in our own alternate realities, our own fantasy worlds, walled in by our prejudices and preconceptions?

The key seems to be individually recognizing our susceptibility to bias and trying to make changes to the way that we live and think. Perhaps we need to recognize our fallibility. Some biases and preconceptions can seem relatively harmless, like my impression of the Yucatan, but when it comes to more important issues, it is necessary to solve our differences and make accommodations.

 Catherine Ward

 Note: I did some reading on this that I have not included in my article. The subject is simply too vast, and I am not a psychologist, so I may not present the ideas properly. These are merely some thoughts that occurred to me after reading “Breaking the Maya Code”. I am attaching some references that you can use to read further if you are interested.

 Accepting Threatening Information: Self–Affirmation and the Reduction of Defensive Biases. David K. Sherman, Geoffrey L. Cohen (August 1, 2002) https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00182

The Bias Blind Spot: Perceptions of Bias in Self Versus Others. Emily Pronin, Daniel Y. Lin, Lee Ross, (March 1, 2002) https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167202286008

How we know what isn't so: The fallibility of human reason in everyday life. T Gilovich,  1993. https://www.amazon.com/How-Know-What-Isnt-Fallibility/dp/0029117062/ref=sr_1_1?crid=G5XG2RCUVRSK&dchild=1&keywords=how+we+know+what+isn%27t+so&qid=1635094006&s=books&sprefix=how+we+know+what+isn%27t+so%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C133&sr=1-1

Pushing the Limits: Cognitive, Affective, and Neural Plasticity Revealed by an Intensive Multifaceted Intervention. Michael D. Mrazek*, Benjamin W. Mooneyham*, Kaita L. Mrazek and Jonathan W. Schooler, Front. Hum. Neurosci., 18 March 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00117

Cognitive Biases in Sports: The Irrationality of Coaches, Commentators, and Fans. Samuel McNerny, 2011. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/cognitive-biases-in-sports-the-irrationality-of-coaches-commentators-and-fans/

#science #psychology #bias #preconceptions #art institute of chicago #breaking the maya code

[axismundienarei]

Search For Answers - Mushroom Pillars of Göbekli Tepe

The monuments of antiquity are connected with ancient humanity’s deep rooted interest in the Spirit of Nature, they are coded messages in stone, recording this sacred knowledge for posterity. 

The worship of animal spirit companions and the concept of human-animal transformation is so ancient, that the origins of these beliefs appear to predate the development of agriculture. The encoded images of hallucinogenic mushrooms associated with feline deities and the Tree of Life are found in both the Old World, and the the New World, where a common motif in Olmec art represents the mushroom's effect of jaguar transformation and the soul's mythical underworld journey. 

Archaeologist Michael D. Coe (1972) demonstrated a long-standing Mesoamerican association of the jaguar with rulership, royal lineages, and power, having an intimate relationship with the sun in the underworld, the Jaguar Sun God (John B. Carlson 1981, p.125).

#Mushroom #MushroomPillars #GobekliTepe #Turkey #Ancient #Monuments #Spirit #Nature #Sacred #Knowledge #TreeOfLife #Jaguar #Transformation #Soul #Underworld #Sun #God

[tlatollotl]

Coe, Michael D.

Michael D. Coe, a retired Yale professor and one of the leading figures in Mesoamerican archaeology, died Wednesday at age 90. Born on May 14, 1929 in New York City, he attended Fay School and St. Paul's School before entering Harvard, graduating in the class of 1950. He served with the Central Intelligence Agency in Taiwan, where he fell in love with Chinese food. However, he decided that his true interest lay in archaeology, and he returned to Harvard to pursue a PhD. In a physical anthropology class, he met Sophie Dobzhansky, daughter of a noted geneticist, and they married in 1955. They produced five children, his sons Nicholas, Andrew, and Peter, and his daughters Sarah and Natalie. After teaching for two years at the University of Tennessee, he was given the post of assistant professor at Yale's Department of Anthropology. He and Sophie purchased a house on St. Ronan Street, which became his home until he died. He rose to full professor, acted as chairman of the department during the turbulent years on the 1960s and 1970s, and was also a curator of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. He taught thousands of students, his courses ranging from Anthro 1 and the cultures of Native America to the translation of Mayan hieroglyphs. He remained close to many of his students, who themselves became noted experts in the study of the ancient New World. His research interests were wide, and he possessed boundless curiosity and enthusiasm. He excavated sites in Guatemala and Veracruz, Mexico, unearthing Olmec colossal heads and other monuments that illuminated the earliest cultures of Mesoamerica. He and his wife Sophie made important contributions to the effort that finally broke the code of Mayan hieroglyphic writing. They purchased a farm in Heath, Massachusetts, and soon he was excavating a nearby French and Indian War fort. He became an avid fly fisherman, traveling around the world with his sons and fishing buddies. He took great pride in an exhibition on the history of fly fishing that he curated for the Peabody. He wrote well over a dozen books, covering topics such as Mexico and the Maya, ancient Khmer civilization, and his own life and career. After Sophie was diagnosed with cancer, he completed the book that she had started, called "The True History of Chocolate." He was writing and communicating with colleagues right up to the day he entered the hospital. In addition to his children, he is survived by six grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Millicent Library, 45 Center St., Fairhaven, MA. A memorial service will be announced at a later date.Published in The New Haven Register on Sept. 29, 2019

#archaeology #arqueologia #maya #mesoamerica #academia #peabody #yale #olmec #art #arte #history #historia #anthropology

[literary-illuminati]

So I was vaguely aware of this whole colonialist myth about how in Aztec theology Quetzalcoatl had taken ships off to the east and would return ahead of the apocalypse and a) the aztec's thought Cortez et al were him returned and b) something something Quetzalcoatl=Jesus?

Anyway I kind of assumed it was 100% bullshit so very funny to me that this book very strongly implies that the mythology about Quetzalcoatl sailing off was about a historical Toltec prince/lord who used a lot of winged serpent heraldry and lost a power struggle then did in fact sail off - specifically down to the Yucatan, where he conquered a nice little empire for himself centered on Chichen Itza.

#everything besides that presumably still bullshit #the maya #stephen houston #michael d. coe #tht

[xhxhxhx]

I removed some books today.

I think of myself as a minimalist, but that doesn’t happen to be true. I have acquired more books than I will ever read. They still sit, stacked and unreachable, in piles by the walls, two dozen books tall and sometimes two books deep.

I don’t think I know where they all came from. I think more came from online than from any physical store. I bought them from Abebooks, the sales search platform that Amazon owns now. Abebooks tell you the names of the sellers, but they seem unconnected to any real place.

From Better World Books. From Thrift Books and Bookbarn. From Silver Arch Books, Motor City Books, Free State Books, Sierra Nevada Books, Yankee Clipper Books, and the Atlanta Book Company. From Green Earth Books and Housing Works Books. From Goldstone Books and Powell’s Books and Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries. From Satellite Books and the Orchard Bookshop. From Blue Cloud Books and Hippo Books and Wonder Book.

They’re from all over, from places you’ve never been, places you’ll never be. They’re names on a box. But then there are the books from more intimate places, intimately connected

From library’s old bookstore, which sold paperbacks for fifty cents, hardcovers for a dollar. From the basement of the old independent bookstore down on Front Street, where they sold remaindered and overstocked books marked down with red-orange tape. From the thrift store across the street, which charged too much.

From the Chapters at the mall in your hometown, or the Chapters and Indigo in the places you’ve been to, from the shelves of marked-down items where you looked for bargains, for the books you knew you should read, and all the books you never would. Places where you could drink sweet cream and coffee and pretend to read.

From the Borders in Syracuse, where you idled while the family went to the fair, where they always said they were going to build the largest mall in America, but never did. There was another Borders in South Florida, where they were stripping fixtures from the walls because the books had not sold, and so the Borders had to be. They still have bookstores. I’m not sure what they sell now. Postcards, I think.

The books still in my room had postcards from people I will never know, dedications to people I will never see, business cards from people who have moved on to other work. But their spines are unbroken, their pages unmarked. I guess I wanted them that way. I bought them like that.

I sometimes worried they would break through the floor. I would wake up to the collapse of everything I have ever owned as I plummeted a few short feet to my death. I guess it would probably take longer than that. I would have to wait for them to crush me. That mass of books would fall on me, blotting out the light. Crushed beneath nearly everything I have ever owned.

That’s what happened to the clerk Toshiko Sasaki in John Hershey’s Hiroshima, who was seated at her desk on August 6, 1945, in front of a couple of bookcases from the factor library:

Everything fell, and Miss Sasaki lost consciousness. The ceiling dropped suddenly and the wooden floor above collapsed in splinters and the people up there came down and the roof above them gave way; but principally and first of all, the bookcases right behind her swooped forward and the contents threw her down, with her left leg horribly twisted and breaking underneath her. There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.

Miss Sasaki made out alright, although not so well as to not ask the question “If your God is so good and kind, how can he let people suffer like this?” But then, I have more books than she did.

I removed some books today. I still have more I want to remove. I just don’t have the boxes for them. I took the boxes I did have in the back of my car to a mass-market thrift store, where they will end up on the shelves by the leather jackets. 

Perhaps they will end on some other shelf, like a postcard from somewhere unknown, in someone else’s memory. But I don’t think they will. I don’t think they’ll sell. There aren’t enough people here who spend money pretending to read.

I don’t know what will happen to them. I suppose they will pulp them. Or perhaps they will end in a landfill, crushed beneath their own weight, suffocating beneath the earth we have made for them until life reclaims them.

I wrote out a partial list of the books I threw out. I don’t know what it says about me. There’s a double significance here: These are books I bought, for some amount of money, but these are also books I am throwing away, because I asked the question the woman told me to ask, which was whether they sparked joy, and I answered no.

Those books in the photo are the books that have not yet been thrown away. Here, below the fold, are the books that have:

Judith Fitzgerald’s Sarah McLachlan: Building a Mystery

Mordecai Richler’s Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!

Jonathan Coe’s The Rotter’s Club

Misha Glenny’s McMafia

Joinville and Villehardouin’s Chronicles of the Crusades

Michael Ignatieff’s The Lesser Evil

Russell Dalton’s Citizen Politics in Western Democracies: Public Opinion and Political Parties in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and France

Richard Finn’s Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan

Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi

Fox Butterfield’s China: Alive in the Bitter Sea

Anthony Sampson’s The Changing Anatomy of Britain

Masanori Hashimoto’s The Japanese Labor Market in a Comparative Perspective with the United States

Donald Keene’s Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era: Poetry, Drama, Criticism

Andrei Shleifer’s Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic Reform in Russia

Peter Newman’s The Secret Mulroney Tapes

Nicholas Negroponte’s Being Digital

Lesley Downer’s The Brothers: The Hidden World of Japan’s Richest Family

Harold Vogel’s Entertainment Industry Economics

Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers’s Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector

Donald Harman Akenson, Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus

Philip Ziegler’s King Edward VIII

David Wessel’s In FED We Trust

Robert Dallek’s Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961--1973

David Halberstam’s The Reckoning

David Bell’s The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It

Kevin Phillips’s The Cousins’ Wars

Yirmiyahu Yovel, Spinoza and Other Heretics: The Adventures of Immanence

Michael Oren’s Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Lawrence McDonald’s A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

Richard Posner’s The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy

William Chester Jordan’s Europe in the High Middle Ages

William Cohan’s House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Linda Lear’s Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature

Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

Allan Brandt’s The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America

Garry Wills’s Head and Heart: American Christianities

Sarah Bradford’s Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain’s Queen

Andrew Gordon’s The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853--1955

John Ardagh’s France in the New Century: Portrait of a Changing Society

Bob Woodward’s The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House

John Julius Norwich’s Byzantium: The Early Centuries

Taylor Branch’s Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963--65

Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker

Tim Blanning’s The Pursuit of Glory: Europe, 1648--1815

Robert Fagles’s translation of Virgil’s The Aeneid

Karl Popper’s The Poverty of Historicism

P. D. Smith’s Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon

Richard Rhodes’s Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race

Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street Years

Alistair Horne’s Harold Macmillan, 1957--1986

Taylor Branch’s The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President

Ian Kershaw’s Hitler, 1936--1945: Nemesis

David Grossman’s To the End of the Land

Sean Wilentz’s The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln

Philipp Blom’s The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900--1914

Jacob M. Schlesinger’s Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Postwar Political Machine

Peter Jenkins’s Mrs. Thatcher’s Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era

Martin Lawrence’s Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chrétien

Marin Lawrence’s Chrétien: The Will to Win

Alastair Campbell’s The Blair Years

Tony Blair’s A Journey

David Kennedy’s Don’t Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America

Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to the End

Kate McCafferty’s Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl

Martin Wolf’s Why Globalization Works

Charles Fishman’s The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works -- and How It’s Transforming the American Economy

William Easterly’s The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good

Karel van Wolferen’s The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation

Jeffrey Sachs’s The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime

[slyke25]

2009-2011

Below are the shows I covered from ‘09-12.

(v) = Video included in review

(p&s) = photos were taken with a point & shoot camera (early concerts)

2011 Favorite Concert Photos (Review)

12.12.2011  White Dress (TT the Bear’s Place)

12.12.2011  Gary Clark Jr. (TT the Bear’s Place) (v)

12.8.2011  Ryan Adams (Orpheum Theater) p&s (v)

12.1.2011 Jocie Adams (Cafe 939) p&s

12.1.2011  The Barr Brothers (Cafe 939) (v)

11.20.2011  Active Child (House of Blues)

11.20.2011  M83 (House of Blues)

11.19.2011  Chris Robinson Brotherhood (Somerville Theatre) p&s (v)

11.17.2011  The Tosspints (Paradise Rock Club)

11.17.2011  Dropkick Murphys (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

11.14.2011  Earthquake Party (Lansdowne Pub)

11.14.2011  Surfer Blood (Lansdowne Pub)

11.6.2011  H.W. (O’Brien’s Pub)

11.6.2011  Adeem (O’Briens Pub)

11.6.2011  Astronautalis (O’Brien’s Pub) (v)

11.5.2011  Nikki Lane (Paradise Rock Club)

11.5.2011  Noah and the Whale (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

11.1.2011  Tall Heights (Johhny D’s)

11.1.2011  Darlingside (Johnny D’s)

10.25.2011  Double Ghost (Brighton Music Hall)

10.25.2011  Fanfarlo (Brighton Music Hall) (v)

10.24.2011  Thief Thief (Charlie’s Kitchen)

10.24.2011  Celestial Shore (Charlie’s Kitchen)

10.24.2011  Fat History Month (Charlie’s Kitchen)

10.21.2011  Joe Pug (Somerville Theatre) (v)

10.21.2011  The Low Anthem (Somerville Theatre) (v)

10.7.2011  Old Jack (TT the Bear’s Place)

10.7.2011  Matrimony (TT the Bear’s Place)

10.7.2011  Langhorne Slim (TT the Bear’s Place) (v)

9.30.2011  Grace Woodruffe (House of Blues)

9.24.2011  2011 Life is Good Festival Canton MA (Barefoot Truth, Dwight and Nicole, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Tristan Prettyman, Martin Sexton, The Hold Steady, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Ingrid Michaelson, The Avett Brothers

9.20.2011  Nick Lowe (Wang Theatre)

9.20.2011  Wilco (Wang Theatre)

9.19.2011  Polica (Paradise Rock Club)

9.19.2011  Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Paradise Rock Club)

9.10.2011  Jeff Mangum (Jordan Hall) p&s (a)

9.9.2011  Yo La Tengo (BOA Pavilion)

9.9.2011  The National (BOA Pavilion) (v)

8.14.2011  Neko Case (BOA Pavilion)

8.14.2011  My Morning Jacket (BOA Pavilion)

8.11.2011  Winter Gloves (Brighton Music Hall)

8.11.2011  The Naked and Famous (Brighton Music Hall) (v)

7.30.2011  2011 Newport Folk Festival Day #1 (The Wailin’ Jennys, Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, The Felice Brothers, Typhoon, River City Extension, Freelance Whales, Gogol Bordello, Delta Spirit, Tegan & Sara, Gillian Welch, The Decemberists

7.31.2011  2011 Newport Folk Festival Day #2 (Brown Bird, David Wax Museum, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Trampled By Turtles, Justin Townes Earle, Middle Brother, Elvis Costello, M. Ward (v)

7.28.2011  The Submarines (Paradise Rock Club)

7.28.2011  The Eels (Paradise Rock Club)

7.27.2011  The Flaming Lips (BOA Pavilion) (v)

7.19.2011  Flow Child (Great Scott)

7.19.2011  Moonface (Great Scott) (v)

7.18.2011  Lower Dens (TT the Bear’s Place)  

7.18.2011  Cass McCombs  (TT The Bear’s Place) (v)

6.1.2011  The Secret Sisters (BOA Pavilion)

6.1.2011  Brandi Carlilie (BOA Pavilion)

6.1.2011  Ray Lamontagne  (BOA Pavilion)

5.21.2011  Earthfest 2011 Boston, MA (Atomic Tom, Sponge, OK Go, Ed Kowalczyk)

5.17.2011  The Cave Singers (Orpheum Theatre)

5.17.2011  Fleet Foxes (Orpheum Theatre)

5.11.2011  Voxhaul Brodcast (House of Blues)

5.11.2011  Airborne Toxic Event (House of Blues)

5.10.2011  O’Brother (House of Blues)

5.10.2011  Cage the Elephant (House of Blues)

5.10.2011  Manchester Orchestra (House of Blues)

5.5.2011  Two Man Gentleman Band (Brighton Music Hall)

5.5.2011  The Infamous Stringdusters (Brighton Music Hall)

4.19.2011  Iron & Wine (House of Blues)

4.14.2011  Lady Lamb the Beekeeper (Brighton Music Hall)

4.14.2011  Sharon Van Etten (Brighton Music Hall)

4.13.2011  Pretty and Nice (Great Scott)

4.13.2011  Handsome Furs (Great Scott) (v)

4.12.2011  Jaggery (Middle East Upstairs)

4.12.2011  Callers (Middle East Upstairs)

4.12.2011  Wye Oak (Middle East Upstairs) (v)

4.6.2011  Township (Brighton Music Hall)

4.6.2011  Hacienda (Brighton Music Hall)

4.6.2011  The Greenhornes (Brighton Music Hall)

4.4.2011  Holy Ghost (House of Blues)

4.4.2011  Cut Copy (House of Blues)

3.24.2011  Faces on Film (Villa Victoria Center for the Arts) p&s

3.24.2011  Richard Ashcroft (Villa Victoria Center for the Arts) p&s (v)

3.10.2011  Mynabirds (House of Blues)

3.10.2011  Bright Eyes (House of Blues)

3.4.2011  The Low Anthem (Old South Church)

3.3.2011  Dawes (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

3.3.2011  Deer Tick (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

3.3.3011  Middle Brother (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

2.21.2011  David Gray (Wang Theatre) p&s (v)

2.11.2011  Scott Hutchinson (House of Blues)

2.11.2011  Josh Ritter (House of Blues)

1.18.2011  Static Jacks (Great Scott)

1.18.2011  Young the Giant (Great Scott)

1.16.2011  Camper Van Beethoven (Middle East Downstairs) (v)

1.16.2011  Cracker (Middle East Downstairs) (v)

1.13.2011  Mean Creek (Brighton Music Hall)

12.10.2010  Marissa Nadler (Tremont Temple) p&s

12.10.2010  Andrew Bird (Tremont Temple) p&s (v)

12.2.2010  The Luyas (Paradise Rock Club)

12.2.2010  The Antlers (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

12.1.2010  Justin Jones  (Paradise Rock Club)

12.1.2010  Badly Drawn Boy (Paradise Rock Club)

11.22.2010  Kuroma (Paradise Rock Club)

11.22.2010  Stardeath and White Dwarfs (Paradise Rock Club)

11.22.2010  Tame Impala (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

11.11.2010  Sufjan Stevens (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (v)

11.2.2012 Black Mountain (Paradise Rock Club)

11.2.2010 Black Angels (Paradise Rock Club)

11.1.2010  The Shining Twins (Great Scott)

11.1.2010 Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield (Great Scott)

11.1.2010 Juliana Hatfield (Great Scott)

10.29.2010 The Phantom Band (Paradise Rock Club)

10.29.2010 Plants and Animals (Paradise Rock Club)

10.29.2010 Frightened Rabbit (Paradise Rock Club) (v)

10.28.2010 Adam Haworth Stephens (Brighton Music Hall)

10.28.2010  The Felice Brothers (Brighton Music Hall)

10.15.2010  Dean Wareham (Wang Theatre) p&s

10.15.2010  Belle and Sebastian (Wang Theatre) p&s (v)

10.7.2010  The Walkmen (Royale)

10.7.2010  A.A. Bondy (Royale)

10.4.2010  Pete Yorn  (Pearl Street)

10.3.2010  Roger Waters (TD Garden) p&s (v)

10.3.2010  Neon Indian (Power Plant)

10.2.2010  S. Carey (Somerville Theatre)

10.2.2010  The Tallest Man on Earth (Somerville Theatre) (v)

9.28.2010  Sleigh Bells (Orpheum Theatre)

9.28.2010  LCD Soundsystem (Orpheum Theatre)

9.26.2010  Mean Creek (Middle East Downstairs)

9.26.2010  Dead Confederate (Middle East Downstairs)

9.25.2010  Ed Harcourt (Paradise Rock Club)

9.25.2010  James (Paradise Rock Club)

9.22.2010  Boxer Rebellion (Middle East Upstairs)

9.22.2010  Amusement Parks on Fire (Middle East Upstairs)

9.22.2010  We Are Augustines (Middle East Upstairs)

8.18.2010  David Gray (BOA Paviion) p&s (v)

8.18.2010  Ray Lamontagne (BOA Pavilion) p&s (v)

8.2.2010  Arcade Fire (BOA Pavilion) p&s (v)

8.2.2010  Young Galaxy (BOA Pavilion) p&s

7.31.2010 Newport Folk Festival (Low Anthem, Blitzen Trapper, Brandie Carlilie, O’Death, Horse Feathers, Andrew Bird, Dawes (p&s) (v)

7.25.2010  Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (Pearl Street) p&s (v)

7.16.2010  Chris Warren (Middle East Downstairs) p&s

7.16.2010  Ha Ha Tonka (Middle East Downstairs) p&s

7.16.2010  Langhorne Slim (Middle East Downstairs) p&s (v)

7.11.2010  The Mools (Port City Music Hall) p&s

7.11.2010  Wolf Parade (Port City Music Hall) p&s (v)

6.26.2010  Passion Pit (Royale) p&s (v)

6.23.2010  These United States (Middle East Downstairs) p&s (v)

6.20.2010  James Taylor (TD Garden) p&s (v)

6.20.2010  Carole King (TD Garden) p&s (v)

5.30.2010  Drew O’Doherty (TT The Bear’s) p&s

5.30.2010  Land of Talk (TT The Bear’s) p&s (v)

5.30.2010  Besnard Lakes (TT The Bear’s) p&s

5.21.2010  The Punch Brothers (Orpheum Theatre) p&s

5.21.2010  Josh Ritter (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (v)

5.17.2010  Pearl Jam (TD Garden) p&s (v)

5.12.2010  Pete Roe (First Church in Cambridge) p&s

5.12.2010  Smoke Fairies (First Church in Cambridge) p&s

5.12.2010  Laura Marling (First Church in Cambridge) p&s (v)

5.8.2010  Suckers (Great Scott) p&s

5.8.2010  Local Natives (Great Scott) p&s (v)

4.30.2010  Horse Feathers (Cafe 939) p&s (v)

4.29.2010  Bad Veins (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

4.29.2010  Maps and Atlases (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

4.29.2010  Frightened Rabbit (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

4.17.2010  David Allen Coe (The Coach House, CA) p&s

4.4.2010  Wilco (Lupos, RI) p&s (a)

3.28.2010  Bachlorette (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

3.28.2010  Beach House (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

3.4.2010  Joe Pug (Great Scott) p&s (v)

3.4.2010  Justin Townes Earle (Great Scott) p&s (v)

2.20.2010  Jason Boesel (Great Scott) p&s

2.20.2010  Corey Chisel & the Wandering Sons (Great Scott) p&s

2.20.2010  Dawes (Great Scott) p&s

2.3.2010  Arletta (Great Scott) p&s

2.3.2010  The Candles (Great Scott) p&s

2.3.2010  Evan Dando (Great Scott) p&s (v)

1.19.2010  Dawn Landes (Club Passim) p&s (v)

1.8.2010  Tanlines (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

1.8.2010  Julian Casablancas (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

2009 Favorite Concert Photos (p&s) Part I

2009 Favorite Concert Photos (p&s) Part II

12.3.2009  Josh Ritter (Calvin Theatre) p&s (a)

12.3.2009  Low Anthem (Calvin Theatre) p&s (a)

12.1.2009  The Big Pink (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

11.30.2009  Dave Godowski (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

11.30.2009  Bowerbirds (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

11.30.2009  Elvis Perkins in Dearland (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

11.4.2009  Dave Gutter (Wang Theatre) p&s

11.4.2009  Ray Lamontagne (Wang Theatre) p&s (v)

11.3.2009  Monsters of Folk (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (audio)

11.1.2009  Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop (Somerville Armory) p&s (v)

10.18.2009  Echo and the Bunnymen (Great Scott) p&s (v)

10.17.2009  Dawes (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s

10.17.2009  Langhorne Slim (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s (v)

10.17.2009  Boy Crisis (South Boston) p&s

10.17.2009 The Antlers (South Boston) p&s

10.3.2009  Sufjan Stevens (Port City Music Hall, ME) p&s (v)

9.22.2009  Little Joy (Orpheum Theatre) p&s

9.22.2009  Regina Spektor (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (v)

9.8.2009  Mike Fiore (Great Scott) p&s

9.8.2009  Willy Mason (Great Scott) p&s

9.8.2009  A.A. Bondy (Great Scott) p&s (v)

8.31.2009  Stardeath and White Dwarfs (BOA Pavilion) p&s

8.31.2009  Explosions in the Sky (BOA Pavilion) p&s

8.31.2009  Flaming Lips (BOA Pavilion) p&s (v)

8.22.2009  The Horrors (Bowery Ballroom, NYC) p&s

8.22.2009  Nine Inch Nails (Bowery Ballroom, NYC) p&s

8.5.2009  MGMT (Fenway Park) p&s

8.5.2009  Paul McCartney (Fenway Park) p&s (v)

8.3.2009  Drew O’Doherty (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s

8.3.2009  Jessica Hoop (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s

8.3.2009  Langhorne Slim (TT the Bear’s Place) p&s (v)

2009 Newport Folk Festival Day #1 (Langhorne Slim, The Avett Brothers, Gillian Welch, Fleet Foxes, The Decemberists (a) (v) (p&s)

7.30.2009  Kristen Diable (Showcase Live) p&s

7.30.2009  Gin Blossoms (Showcase Live) p&s (v)

7.26.2009  Zee Avi (House of Blues) p&s

7.26.2009  Pete Yorn (House of Blues) p&s (v)

7.6.2009  Cinnamon Band (Great Scott) p&s

7.6.2009  DRI (Great Scott) p&s

7.6.2009  Handsome Furs (Great Scott) p&s (v)

6.14.2009  Tallest Man on Earth (Middle East Downstairs) p&s (v)

6.11.2009  Witchies (Middle East Downstairs) p&s

6.11.2009  Elfin Saddle (Middle East Downstairs) p&s

6.11.2009  Sunset Rubdown (Middle East Downstairs) p&s (v)

6.10.2009  Ida Maria (Skellig Pub) p&s (v)

5.19.2009  Pattern Is Movement (Somerville Theatre) p&s

5.19.2009  St. Vincent (Somerville Theatre) p&s (v)

5.14.2009  Animal Collective (House of Blues)

5.11.2009  Bon Iver (Cape Cinema) p&s (v)

5.10.2009  Ben Harper & Relentless 7 (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

5.6.2009  These United States (Harpers Ferry) p&s

5.6.2009  Papercuts (Harpers Ferry) p&s

5.6.2009  Vetiver (Harpers Ferry) p&s (v)

4.26.2009  Travis (Newbury Comics) p&s (v)

4.22.2009  Bruce Springsteen (TD Garden) p&s

4.21.2009  Fire Zuave (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

4.21.2009  Sugar and Gold (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

4.21.2009  Of Montreal (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

4.19.2009  The Dead (DCU Center, Worcester) p&s

4.2.2009  Josh Ritter (Avalon Theatre, MD) p&s (v)

3.31.2009  Ida Maria (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

3.31.2009  Glasvegas (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

3.15.2009  Pete Yorn (Majestic Theatre) p&s (v)

3.14.2009  Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

3.14.2009  A.C Newman (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

2.26.2009  Alena Diane (Paradise Rock Club) p&s

2.26.2009  Blitzen Trapper (Paradise Rock Club) p&s (v)

2.21.2009  Ryan Adams & the Cardinals (Orpheum Theatre) p&s

1.30.2009  Andrew Bird (Orpheum Theatre) p&s (v)

1.18.2009  Frightened Rabbit (Great Scott) p&s (v)

[aristide-france]

Quelques extraits du cœur de l’Angleterre de Jonathan Coe.

« Il donnait l’impression de vivre en permanence dans une colère à basse tension qio perturbait ses nuits aussi bien que ses jours. Ce qu’il avait dit sur les radars aujourd’hui – « Tu peux plus faire un mètre sans qu’ils t’extorquent de l’argent, ces enfoirés. » - en était l’illustration même. Il aurait été en peine de les désigner par leur nom, mais il ressentait leur présence arrogante et manipulatrice, et sa rancœur était amère. Comme l’avait dit Doug : « La colère monte, une vraie colère », même si les gens n’auraient pu expliquer pourquoi et contre qui. »

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« La cérémonie d’ouverture des JO de 2012 avait eu un retentissement profond et bien particulier sur Sohan. Son projet de recherche avait bifurqué et s’était recentré sur les représentations littéraires, cinématographiques et musicales de l’identité anglaise. Et, après avoir travaillé sur le sujet plusieurs mois, il s’était passionné tout spécialement pour le concept d’ « Angleterre profonde », formule qu’il rencontrait de plus en plus fréquemment dans les articles de journaux et les publications universitaires. De quoi s’agissait-il au juste ? Etait-ce un phénomène psycho-géographique qui s’articulait autour du parc communal, du pub du coin avec son toit de chaume, de la cabine téléphonique rouge et du choc délicat de la balle de cricket contre ma batte en saule ? Ou bien, pour le comprendre pleinement, fallait-il se plonger dans les œuvres de Chesterton et Priestley, H.E. Bates et L.T.C. Rolt ? Avait-on intérêt à regarder A Canterbury Tale de Michael Powell, ou bien Went the day Well ? De Cavalcanti ? Et trouvait-on la quintessence musicale chez Elgar, Vaughan Williams ou Georges Butterworth ? Fallait-il chercher dans les tableaux de Constable ? Ou bien le concept n’avait-il finalement jamais été mieux exprimé que sous une forme allégorique par J.R.R. Tolkien quand il avait créé la Terre du Milieu et peuplé son idylle pastorale de vaillants hobbits insulaires, enclins à s’assoupir dans leur confort mental si rien ne s’y opposait mais farouches lorsque piqués au vif – de fameux alliés en temps de crise, pourrait-on dire ? »

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« Il n’y a rien de plus vindicatif qu’une horde de gauchos en croisade morale quand ils ont repéré une proie. »

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« Ton problème, Anderton, dit Culpepper en s’immobilisant tout à coup pour faire volte-face, c’est que tu n’as jamais pris la peine de comprendre le monde des affaires, ni les ressorts du patriotisme. Ca ne fait pas recette, ces deux thèmes-là dans la guilde des commentateurs progressistes. Autrement, vous vous rendriez compte que les deux peuvent tout à fait aller de pair ? Parce que je les lis, tes éditos, tu sais. C’est toujours intéressant de voir ce que pense l’opposition. Mais ils ne m’ont jamais tellement impressionné, j’ai le regret de te le dire. Ton analyse est superficielle, et depuis le referendum, tout le monde a fini par voir ce que certains avaient décelé depuis un moment, à savoir que c’est toi et tes pairs grands pourfendeurs de l’élite qui êtes aujourd’hui la véritable élite. Si bien que les gens se retournent contre vous, et c’est bien ce qui vous chagrine. »

Doug réfléchit un moment puis il secoua la tête. « Désolé Ronnie, mais je ne suis pas convaincu. »

- Pas convaincu de quoi ?

- Tu vois, ce qu’il y a a c’est que quand j’entends quelqu’un comme toi parler « des gens », mon détecteur de foutaises s’affole. Parce que selon moi, tu as passé ta vie d’adulte à mettre le plus de distance possible entre « les gens » et toi, justement. Tu prends les transports en commun, tu te fais soigner à l’hôpital public, tu envoies tes gosses dans des établissements de secteur ? Surtout pas ! Entrer en contact avec les prolos ? Pour rien au monde. Mais le Brexit, c’est un rêve que tu caresses, Dieu sait pourquoi. Alors quand « les gens » te fournissent ce que tu appelles de tes vœux, tu les dorlotes. Tu es ravi de les utiliser comme tu utilises tout le monde. Voilà comment les individus de ton acabit opèrent. Mais j’espère que tu en es conscient, cette fois, tu joues avec le feu.

- Je joue avec le feu ! Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, tu adores dramatiser !

- Je ne dramatise pas. Nous savons tous qu’il y a beaucoup de colère dans le pays en ce moment. Or toi, pour arriver à tes fins, il faut absolument que tu souffles sur les braises. Sauf qu’il y a toutes sortes de façons de manifester sa colère. Il y a ceux qui râlent dans leur tasse de thé, qui soupire amèrement devant le Daily Telegraph et qui votent pour sortir de l’Union – jusque-là, très bien. Mais voilà qu’un beau matin, d’autres sortent dans la rue avec un gilet pare-balles bourré de couteaux et poignardent leur députée, et là, ça ne va plus, tu vois ? »

#jonathan coe #brexit

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The True History of Chocolate | Author: Sophie D. Coe / Michael D. Coe | Publisher: Thames & Hudson (2019)

#books #The True History of Chocolate #Sophie D. Coe #Michael D. Coe

[samsonsergeevitbudnik]

104: 110-32, 1995), а также Патриком Кирчем и Джоанной Эллисон в статье «Палеонтологические свидетельства человеческой колонизации отдаленных островов Океании» (Kirch Patrick, Ellison Joanna. «Palaeoenvironmental evidence for human colonization of remote Oceanic islands». Antiquity, 68: 310-21, 1994). Глава 18 Множество публикаций, посвященных темам этой главы, можно найти в разделах, относящихся к другим главам: «Глава 3» — по завоеванию инков и ацтеков, «Главы 4-10» — по одомашниванию животных и растений, «Глава 11» — по инфекционным заболеваниям, «Глава 12» — по письменности, «Глава 13» — по технологиям, «Глава 14» — по политическим институтам, «Глава 16» — по Китаю. Полезное сопоставление дат начала производства продовольствия по всему миру делает Брюс Смит в своем «Возникновении аграрного хозяйства» (Smith Bruce. The Emergence of Agriculture. New York: Scientific American Library, 1995). Помимо литературы, приведенной в остальных разделах, можно назвать еще несколько публикаций, в которых обсуждаются исторические траектории, педставленные в таблице 18.1. По Англии: «Доисторическая Британия» Тимоти Дарвилла (Darvill Timothy. Prehistoric Britain. London: Batsford, 1987). По Андам: сборник «Происхождение и развитие андского государства» (The Origins and Development of the Andean State. / eds. Haas Jonathan et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), «Инки и их предки» Майкла Мозли (Moseley Michael. The Incas and Their Ancestors. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992) и «Чавин и происхождение андской цивилизации» Ричарда Берджера (Burger Richard. Chavin and the Origins of Andean Civilization. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992). По Амазонии: «Пармана» Анны Рузвельт (Roosevelt Anna. Parmana. New York: Academic Press, 1980) и ее же статья в соавторстве «Керамика VIII тысячелетия из доисторической свалки раковин в бразильской Амазонии» («Eighth millennium pottery from a prehistoric shell midden in the Brazilian Amazon». Science, 254: 1621-24, 1991). По Мезоамерике: две книги Майкла Коу: «Мексика» (Coe Michael. Mexico. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1984) и «Майя» (Coe Michael. The Maya. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1984). По востоку Соединенных Штатов: статьи Винкаса Степонайтиса «Археология доисторического периода на востоке Соединенных Штатов, 1970-1985 гг.» (Steponaitis Vincas. «Prehistoric archaeology in the southeastern United States, 1970-1985». Annual Reviews of Anthropology, 15: 363-404, 1986) и Брюса Смита «Археология на юго-востоке Соединенных Штатов: от далтонской культуры до де Сото, 10500-500 гг. до н.э.» (Smith Bruce. «The archaeology of the southeastern United States: From Dalton to de Soto, 10 500-500 B.P.». Advances in World Archaeology, 5: 1-92, 1986), сборник «Ранние огородные хозяйства в лесной зоне востока США» (Emergent Horticultural Economies of the Eastern Woodlands. / ed. Keegan William, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, 1987), статья Брюса Смита «Происхождение аграрного хозяйства на востоке Северной Америки» (Smith Bruce. «Origins of agriculture in eastern North America». Science, 246: 1566-71, 1989) и его же книга «Миссисипский расцвет» (Smith Bruce. The Mississippian Emergence. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990), а также книга Джудит Бенс «Археология на юго-востоке Соединенных Штатов» (Bense Judith. Archaeology of the Southeastern United States. San Diego: Academic Press, 1994). Компактное пособие по коренному населению Северной Америки — «Североамериканские индейцы до пришествия европейцев. Смитсоновский справочник» Филипа Коппера (Kopper Philip. The Smithsonian Book of North American Indians before the Coming of the Europeans. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1986). В статье Брюса Смита «Происхождение аграрного хозяйства в Америке» (Smith Bruce. «The origins of agriculture in the Americas». Evolutionary Anthropology, 3: 174-84, 1995) освещаются дебаты по вопросу датировки начала производства продовольствия в Новом Cвете. Тем, кто склонен думать, что ограниченность развития ельского хозяйства и общественных институтов в Новом Cвете была обусловлена культурными и психологическими особенностями самих коренных американцев, а не скудным набором доступных для доместикации диких видов, стоит прочитать о том, как изменились индейские общества Великих равнин после освоения лошади, в частности в книгах Фрэнка Роу «Индейцы и лошади» (Row Frank. The Indian and the Horse. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955), Джона Юэрса «Черноногие: налетчики северо-западных равнин» (Ewers John. The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958) и Эрнеста Уоллеса и Э. Адамсона Хебеля «Команчи: хозяева южных равнин» (Wallace Ernest, E. Adamson Hoebel. The Comanches: Lords of the South Plains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986). Из исследований, которые посвящены распространению языковых семей, спровоцированному возникновением и развитием производства продовольствия, классической работой по истории Европы нужно назвать книгу Альберта Аммермана и Л.Л. Кавалли-Сфорца «Неолитический переход и генетика популяций Европы» (Ammerman Albert, Cavalli-Sforza L.L. The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), тогда как статья Питера Беллвуда «Австронезийское расселение и происхождение языков» (Bellwood Peter. «The Austronesian dispersal and the origin of languages», Scientific American, 265(I): 88-93, 1991) освещает ту же тему на австронезийском материале. На материале всемирного масштаба эта тема разбирается в уже названных в разделе «Пролог» двух книгах Л.Л. Кавалли-Сфорца и др. и одной — Меррита Рулена. Введением в сложную проблематику индоевропейской экспансии могут послужить две работы с диаметрально противоположными позициями: «Археология и язык: загадка индоевропейского происхождения» Колина Ренфру (Renfrew Colin. Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987) и «В поисках индоевропейцев» Дж.П. Мэллори (Mallory J.P. In Search of the Indo-Europeans. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989). Источники по русской экспансии в Сибири: «На восток, к империи» Джорджа Лантцеффа и Ричарда Пирса (Lantzeff George, Pierce Richard. Eastward to Empire. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1973) и «Завоевание континента» У. Брюса Линкольна (Lincoln W. Bruce. The Conquest of a Continent. New York: Random House, 1994). В отношении языков коренных американцев, позиция большинства, согласно которой эти языки разделены на множество неродственных семейств, представлена Лайлом Кэмпбеллом и Мэриэнн Митун в «Языках доколумбовой Америки» (Campbell Lyle, Mithun Marianne. The Languages of Native America. Austin: University of Texas, 1979). Противоположная позиция, объединяющая все языки коренных американцев кроме эскимосско-алеутской семьи и семьи на-дене в большую америндскую семью, представлена Джозефом Гринбергом в книге «Языки в Америке» (Greenberg Joseph. Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987) и Мерритом Руленом в «Путеводителе по языкам мира» (Ruhlen Merritt. A Guide to the World’s Languages. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987). Стандартное изложение истории происхождения и распространения колеса в Евразии: «Колесный транспорт и упряжные животные на древнем Ближнем Востоке» М.Э. Литтауэр и Й.Х. Крувела (Littauer M.A., Crouwel J.H. Wheeled Vehicles and Ridden Animals in the Ancient Near East. Leiden: Brill, 1979) и «Первый колесный транспорт» Стюарта Пигготта (Piggott Stuart. The Earliest Wheeled Transport. London: Thames and Hudson, 1983). Книги, посвященные расцвету и упадку скандинавских колоний в Гренландии и Америке: «История Гренландии» Финна Гэда (Gad Finn. The History of Greenland. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1971), «Покорение северной Атлантики» Дж.Дж. Маркуса (Marcus G.J. The Conquest of the North Atlantic. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), «Скандинавская атлантическая сага» Гвина Джонса (Jones Gwyn. The Norse Atlantic Saga. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986) и сборник «Скандинавские и позднейшие поселения в Cеверной Атлантике и особенности их хозяйства» (Norse and Later Settlement and Subsistence in the North Atlantic. / eds. Morris Christopher, Rackham D. James. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 1992). Авторитетное описание ранних европейских визитов в Новый Свет дано в двух томах Сэмюэла Элиота Морисона: «Европейское открытие Америки: северные путешествия, 500-1600 гг.» (Morison Samuel Eliot. The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages, A.D. 500-1600. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971) и «Европейское открытие Америки: южные путешествия, 1492-1616 гг.» (Morison Samuel Eliot. The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, A.D. 1492-1616. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974). Первым этапам европейской морской экспансии посвящена книга Фелипе Фернандеса-Арместо «До Колумба: открытия и колонизация земель от Средиземноморья до Атлантики, 1229-1492 гг.» (Fernandez-Armesto Felipe. Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 1229-1492. London: Macmillan Education, 1987). Заслуживают внимания и собственные ежедневные отчеты Колумба о своем знаменитом плавании, которые воспроизведены в книге Оливера Данна и Джеймса Келли-мл. «Дневник первого путешествия в Америку Христофора Колумба в 1492-1493 гг.» (Dunn Oliver, Kelley Jr. James. The Diario of Christopher Columbus’s First Voyage to America, 1492-1493. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989). Чтобы скорректировать впечатление от моих по большей части бесстрастных упоминаний о том, как одни народы покоряли и истребляли другие народы, можно прочитать классический рассказ об уничтожении северокалифорнийского племени яхи и о его единственном уцелевшем члене по имени Иши в книге Теодоры Крибер «Иши: жизнь в двух мирах» (Kroeber Theodora. Ishi in Two Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961). Исчезновению аборигенных языков во всем мире посвящены «Вымирающие языки» Роберта Робинса и Юджиниуса Уленбека (Robins Robert, Uhlenbeck Eugenius. Endangered Languages. Providence: Berg, 1991) «Обратное движение лингвистической ассимиляции» Джошуа Фишмана (Fishman Joshua. Reversing Language Shift. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1991) и статья Майкла Краусса «Кризис языков мира» (Krauss Michael. «The world’s languages in crisis». Language, 68: 4-10, 1992). Глава 19 Среди книг, посвященных археологии, доисторическому периоду и истории Африканского континента, заслуживают упоминания «Африка в железном веке» Роланда Оливера и Брайана Пейгана (Oliver Roland, Pagan Brian. Africa in the Iron Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), «Краткая история Африки» Роланда Оливера и Дж.Д. Фейджа (Oliver Roland, Fage J.D. A Short History of Africa. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975) «История Африки» Дж.Д. Фейджа (Fage J.D. A History of Africa. London: Hutchinson, 1978) «Опыт Африки» Роланда Оливера (Oliver Roland. The African Experience. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991), сборник «Археология Африки: продовольствие, металлы и города» (The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals, and Towns. / eds. Shaw Thurstan et al. New York: Routledge, 1993) и «Африканская археология» Дэвида Филлипсона (Phillipson David. African Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993). Соответствия между лингвистическими и археологическими свидетельствами об африканском прошлом прослеживаются авторами сборника «Археологическая и лингвистическая реконструкция африканской истории» (The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History. / eds. Ehret Christopher, Posnansky Merrick. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982). Роли болезней посвящен сборник «Болезни в истории Африки» (Disease in African History. / eds. Hartwig Gerald, Patterson K. David. Durham: Duke University Press, 1978). Тема производства продовольствия в Африке разбирается во многих работах, перечисленных в разделе «Главы 4-10». Дополнительного внимания заслуживают статья «О возрасте аграрного хозяйства в Эфиопии» Кристофера Эрета (Ehret Christopher. «On the antiquity of agriculture in Ethiopia». Journal of African History, 20:161-77, 1979), сборники «От охотников до земледельцев: причины и последствия возникновения производства продовольствия в Африке» (From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa. / eds. Clark J. Desmond, Brandt Steven. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), «Пропитание в субсахарской Африке» (Food in Sub-Saharan Africa. / eds. Hansen Art, McMillan Delia. Boulder, Colo.: Rienner, 1986), статья Фреда Уэндорфа и др. «Использование растений в Сахаре за 8 тысяч лет до н.э.» (Wendorf Fred, et al. «Saharan exploitation of plants 8000 years B.C.». Nature, 359: 721-24, 1992), книга Эндрю Смита «Скотоводство в Африке» (Smith Andrew. Pastoralism in Africa. London: Hurst, 1992) и его же статья «Происхождение и распространение скотоводства в Африке» (Smith Andrew. «Origin and spread of pastoralism in Africa». Annual Reviews of Anthropology, 21: 125-41, 1992). Сведения о Мадагаскаре можно прежде всего почерпнуть в статье Роберта Дьюара и Генри Райта «Культурная история Мадагаскара» (Dewar Robert, Wright Henry. «The culture history of Madagascar». Journal of World Prehistory, 7: 417-66, 1993) и книге «Пьера Верена «История цивилизации на севере Мадагаскара» (Verin Pierre. The History of Civilization in North Madagascar. Rotterdam: Balkema, 1986). Подробное исследование лингвистических данных по источникам колонизации Мадагаскара представлено в книге Отто Даля «Миграция с Калимантана на Мадагаскар» (Dahl Otto. Migration from Kalimantan to Madagascar. Oslo: Norwegian University Press, 1991). Музыкальные инструменты Восточной Африки, как возможный след ее контактов с индонезийцами, рассматриваются в книге А.М. Джонса «Африка и Индонезия: ксилофон и другие музыкальные и культурные факторы» (Jones A.M. Africa and Indonesia: The Evidence of the Xylophone and Other Musical and Cultural Factors. Leiden: Brill, 1971). Важным свидетельством о раннем заселении Мадагаскара служат данные, полученные при исследовании костных остатков вымерших млекопитающих, обзор которых представлен в статье Роберта Дьюара «Вымершие виды Мадагаскара: исчезновение субфоссильной фауны» (Dewar Robert. Extinctions in Madagascar: The loss of the subfossil fauna. // Quaternary Extinctions. / eds. Paul Martin, Klein Richard. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1984). Последующие интересные открытия археологов описаны в статье Р.Д.Э. Макфи и Дэвида Берни «Датировка модифицированных бедренных костей вымершего карликового гиппопотама на юге Мадагаскара» (MacPhee R.D.E., Burney David. «Dating of modified femora of extinct dwarf Hippopotamus from Southern Madagascar». Journal of Archaeological Science, 18: 695-706, 1991). Первые стадии человеческой колонизации с точки зрения данных палеоботаники рассматриваются в статье Дэвида Берни «Изменения фауны центрального Мадагаскара в позднем голоцене» (Burney David. «Late Holocene vegetational change in Central Madagascar». Quaternary Research, 28: 130-43, 1987). Эпилог Связь между экологической деградацией и закатом цивилизации в Греции исследуется с работах Тжирда ван Андела и др. «Пять тысяч лет землепользования и разрушения почв в южной Арголиде» (Van Andel Tjeerd, et al. «Five thousand years of land use and abuse in the southern Argolid». Hesperia, 55: 103-28, 1986), Тжирда ван Андела и Кертиса Раннелза «Вдали от Акрополя: сельская Греция в прошлом» (Van Andel Tjeerd, Curtis Runnels. Beyond the Acropolis: A Rural Greek Past. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987) и Кертиса Раннелза «Разрушение окружающей среды в древней Греции» (Runnels Curtis. «Environmental degradation in ancient Greece». Scientific American, 272(3): 72-75, 1995). Та же зависимость на примере упадка Петры прослеживается в статье Патрисии Фолл и др. «Ископаемые мусорные свалки даманов на Среднем Востоке: свидетельства палеовегетации и человеческого вмешательства» (Fall Patricia et al. Fossil hyrax middens from the Middle East: A record of paleovegetation and human disturbance. // Packrat Middens / eds. Julio Betancourt et al. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990), на примере Месопотамии — в книге Роберта Адамса «Земля городов» (Adams Robert. Heartland of Cities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981). Интересный материал для дальнейшего осмысления можно почерпнуть в книге Э.Л. Джонса «Европейское чудо» (Jones E.L. The European Miracle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), где предпринимается попытка объяснить несходство исторических путей Китая, Индии, исламских стран и Европы. Луиз Ливазес в книге «Когда Китай правил морями» (Levathes Louise. When China Ruled the Seas. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994) описывает внутриполитическую борьбу, исходом которой стал конец морских экспедиций на «плавучих сокровищницах». Другую литературу по ранней китайской истории можно найти в разделе «Главы 16 и 17». Влиянию центральноазиатских кочевников-скотоводов на историю оседлых земледельч��ских цивилизаций Евразии посвящена статья Беннета Бронсона «Роль варваров в падении государств» (Bronson Bennett. The role of barbarians in the fall of states. // The Collapse of Ancient States and Civilizations / eds. Norman Yoffee and George Cowgill. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1988). Возможное применение теории хаоса к истории обсуждает Майкл Шермер в статье «Изгнание демона Лапласа: хаос, антихаос, история и метаистория» (Shermer Michael. «Exorcising Laplace’s demon: Chaos and antichaos, history and metahistory». History and Theory, 34: 59-83, 1995). В этой же статье приводится список источников, документирующих триумф клавиатурной раскладки QWERTY, как, впрочем, и в «Распространении изобретений» Эверета Роджерса (Rogers Everett. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press, 1983). Рассказ очевидца о дорожной аварии в 1930 г., чуть был не стоившей жизни Гитлеру, можно найти в мемуарах Отто Вагенера, еще одного пассажира той же машины. Эти мемуары в сокращенном виде были изданы Генри Тернером-мл. под названием «Гитлер: воспоминания конфидента» (Turner Jr. Henry. Hitler: Memoirs of a Confidant. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978). Предположения Тернера о том, что могло бы случиться, если бы Гитлер погиб в 1930 г., можно найти в главе «Влияние Гитлера на историю» в сборнике «История Германии: идеи, институты и личности» (Turner Jr. Henry. Hitler’s impact on history. // German History: Ideas, Institutions, and Individuals / ed. David Wetzel. New York: Praeger, 1996). Среди многих работ, авторы которых уделяют особое внимание широкомасштабной проблематике истории, следует назвать «Герой в истории» Сиднея Хука (Hook Sidney. The Hero in History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1943), сборник «Теории истории» (Theories of History. / ed. Gardiner Patrick. New York: Free Press, 1959), «Цивилизация и капитализм» и «Труды по истории» Фернана Броделя (Braudel Fernand. Civilization and Capitalism. New York: Harper and Row, 1979; Braudel Fernand. On History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), книги Питера Новика «Благородная мечта» (Novick Peter. That Noble Dream. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) и Генри Хобхауса «Силы перемен» (Hobhouse Henry. Forces of Change. London: Sedgewick and Jackson, 1989). В нескольких сочинениях биолога Эрнста Майра рассматриваются отличия между историческими и неисторическими науками, с особым вниманием к разнице между биологией и физикой, однако многое из сказанного Майром равно применимо к гуманитарной истории. С его взглядами на эту проблему можно ознакомиться в 25-й главе «Эволюции и разнообразия жизни» (Mayr Ernst. Evolution and the Diversity of Life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976) и 1-й и 2-й главах работы «К новой философии биологии» (Mayr Ernst. Towards a New Philosophy of Biology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988). Методы, которыми эпидемиологи устанавливают наличие причинно-следственных зависимостей в развитии человеческих заболеваний, не прибегая к лабораторным экспериментам над людьми, описываются в стандартных эпидемиологических учебниках, в частности в «Основах эпидемиологии» А.М. и Д.Э. Лилиенфелдов (Lilienfeld A.M., Lilienfeld D.E. Foundations of Epidemiology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). Роль естественных экспериментов рассматривается с точки зрения эколога в моей главе под названием «Обзор: лабораторные эксперименты, полевые эксперименты и естественные эксперименты» сборника «Экология сообществ» (Diamond Jared. Overview: Laboratory experiments, field experiments, and natural experiments. // Community Ecology. / eds. Diamond Jared, Case Ted. New York: Harper and Row; 1986). В книге Пола Харви и Марка Пейджела «Сравнительный метод в эволюционной биологии» (Harvey Paul, Pagel Mark. The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) рассказывается о том, как ученые делают выводы на основе сопоставления разных видов. Послесловие 2003 года В следующих публикациях обобщаются открытия последней полудюжины лет, относящиеся к проблемам одомашнивания растений и животных, распространения языков и связи между распространением языков и производством продовольствия: в моей статье «Эволюция, последствия и будущее растительной и животной доместикации» (Diamond Jared. «Evolution, consequences and the future of plant and animal domestication». Nature, 418: 34-41, 2002), в моей статье в соавторстве с Питером Беллвудом «Первые аграрные экспансии: археология, языки и народы» (Diamond Jared, Bellwood Peter. «The first agricultural expansions: archaeology, languages, and people». Science, in press) и в книге Питера Беллвуда и Колина Ренфру «Исследование гипотезы языкового / земледельческого рассеяния» (Bellwood Peter, Renfrew Colin. Examining the Language / Farming Dispersal Hypothesis. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2002). В этих трех работах также перечислены конкретные источники последнего времени по соответствующим темам. Роли сельскохозяйственной экспансии в происхождении современного японского народа посвящена книга Марка Хадсона «Разрушенная идентичность: этногенез на Японских островах» (Hudson Mark. Ruins of Identity: Ethnogenesis in the Japanese Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999). Подробный рассказ о новозеландских Мушкетных войнах можно найти в книге Р.Д. Кросби «Мушкетные войны: история внутренних конфликтов между племенами иви в 1806-1845 гг.» (Crosby R.D. The Musket Wars: a History of Inter-Iwi Conflict 1806-1845. Auckland: Reed, 1999). Более сжатое изложение истории этих войн и рассказ об их месте в более широком историческом контексте даны Джеймсом Беличем в двух книгах: «Новозеландские войны и викторианская интерпретация межрасового конфликта» (James Belich. The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict. Auckland: Penguin, 1986) и «Создание народов: история новозеландцев» (James Belich. Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders. Auckland: Penguin, 1996). Попытка выявить непосредственные причины разрыва в развитии между Европой и Китаем с социологической точки зрения предпринята в двух недавних публикациях: статье Джека Голдстоуна «Расцвет и экономический рост в мировой истории: переосмысливая причины “возвышения Запада” и проышленной революции» (Goldstone Jack. «Efflorescences and economic growth in world history: rethinking the “rise of the West” and the Industrial Revolution». Journal of World History, 13: 323-89, 2002) и книге Кеннета Померанца «Великий разрыв: Китай, Европа и становление современной мировой экономики» (Pomeranz Kenneth. The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000). Противоположный подход, направленный на выявление исходных причин, реализован в недавней статье Грэма Лэнга «Государственные системы и происхождение современной науки: сопоставление Европы и Китая» (Lang Graeme. «State systems and the origins of modern science: a comparison of Europe and China». East-West Dialog, 2: 16-30, 1997) и книге Давида Косандье «Загадка Востока» (Cosandey David. Le Secret de l’Occident. Paris: Arléa, 1997). Цитаты в эпилоге взяты из указанных статей Голдстоуна и Лэнга. Связь между экономическими показателями богатства и темпов роста современных государств с одной стороны и долгой традицией государственности или сельского хозяйства — с другой анализируется в двух статьях: «Биогеография и долгосрочное экономические развитие» Олы Олссона и Дагласа Хиббса (Olsson Ola, Hibbs Douglas. «Biogeography and long-term economic development». In press in European Economic Review ) и «Государства и рынки: преимущество раннего старта» Валери Бокстетт, Ариндама Чанды и Луиса Паттермана (Bockstette Valerie, Chanda Areendam, Putterman Louis. «States and markets: the advantage of an early start». Journal of Economic Growth, 7: 351-73, 2002).

#энциклопедии